State Briefs

Woman attacks man found in her car

JONESBORO (AP) - Police in Jonesboro say a woman who found a strange man sitting in her car chased him down and attacked him.

KAIT reports that the woman told officers she found the man sitting in her car about 11:30 p.m. on Halloween. She says the man told her he is a police officer then started running away.

Police say the woman then chased him down, tackled him and starting hitting him until a friend pulled her off the man and called police.

Officers arrested 23-year-old Chad Hensley for breaking or entering, theft and public intoxication.

The woman's name was not released and police did not immediately return a phone call seeking further comment.

Libertarians cleared to appear on ballot

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - The Libertarian Party of Arkansas has been cleared to appear on the ballot next year after election officials say they turned in enough signatures to qualify.

Secretary of State Mark Martin's office told the party Friday that it had verified that 12,487 signatures submitted were from registered voters in the state. The party needed to submit at least 10,000 valid signatures to receive ballot access.

The party said in a statement that it was recruiting candidates for next year. Three people have already said they want to seek the party's nomination for governor.

The party will choose its nominees at a convention in February.

FS woman charged in death of pedestrian

FORT SMITH (AP) - A Fort Smith woman has been charged with negligent homicide in the death of a Kansas man who was struck by the woman's pickup truck.

Authorities say 51-year-old Vicki Lee Fielding was making a left-hand turn in the pickup shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday when she struck and killed 20-year-old Nathanael DeJarnett of Wellington, Kan., in the center left-turn lane of a Fort Smith street.

Fielding said she did not see DeJarnett until he walked into the path of her truck.

The Times Record reports that the negligent homicide charge was filed Thursday after a preliminary autopsy report listed DeJarnett's cause of death as multiple blunt force injuries.

Tornado confirmed in Thursday storms

CARAWAY (AP) - The National Weather Service has confirmed a tornado was responsible for some of the storm damage in northeast Arkansas.

No one was hurt in the rough weather in Caraway on Halloween night but some structures had roofs pulled off and windows broken from the high winds.

Jonesboro television station KAIT reports that the tornado was rated an EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, meaning it had winds of between 86 mph. and 110 mph.

Authorities say damage was reported in the Craighead County towns of Caraway and Monette after the storms hit Thursday night. The Craighead County Sheriff's Office says no deaths or injuries were reported.

About 10 buildings sustained damage in Caraway, and trees and power lines were knocked down.

75-year-old woman survives night in barbed wire after crash

WILTON (AP) - A woman from southwestern Arkansas survived a night tangled in barbed wire after her car went off a road in Little River County and hit a tree.

Authorities say 75-year-old Nina Hinton was taken to a hospital for non-life threatening injuries Thursday after two people who live nearby heard her calls for help. She had been trapped for about 12 hours.

Hinton left a church service Wednesday night and became disoriented in the darkness, which Little River County sheriff's Sgt. Tim Brown said led to the accident. Hinton drove down an embankment and her car wasn't visible from the road.

The Texarkana Gazette reports Hinton walked up a muddy embankment, slipped and landed on the barbed wire. She also hurt her shoulder and couldn't get up.

No charges in crash that killed Harding University student last month

SEARCY (AP) - Authorities say a White County deputy won't face charges after he struck and killed a Harding University student with his patrol car.

Courtney Book died at a Little Rock hospital after the collision last month.

Authorities say Book was riding her bicycle at night when she was struck by a patrol car driven by Lt. Brandon Grimes.

He says Book was wearing dark clothing and the bicycle did not have reflectors.

White County Chief Deputy Phillip Miller tells The Daily Citizen that no disciplinary action against Grimes was warranted.

Book had been a Harding student since 2008, earning an undergraduate degree in history in 2012.

She was a graduate student in the college of education.

Walmart announces plans for Georgia shoe plant

HAZELHURST, Ga. (AP) - Executives with Walmart Stores Inc. say they plan to move production of some shoes from overseas to a manufacturing plant in south Georgia, which they say will create 250 jobs in the state.

The retailer on Thursday announced plans for the facility in Hazelhurst, a Jeff Davis County town about 100 miles west of Savannah.

Bentonville-based Walmart said its longtime supplier Elan-Polo Inc. will start production of injection-molded footwear in March 2014 in Hazelhurst as part of a joint venture with McPherson Manufacturing.

Officials say the facility will produce 20,000 pairs of shoes per day once it is at full capacity. Previously, the shoes were manufactured overseas.

Pryor to hold up nominee over proposed closure of ASU ROTC program

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor says he will hold up a Department of Defense nominee until Arkansas State University gets answers about the Army's decision to close the school's ROTC program.

Pryor said in a news release on Friday that the Army has not provided justification for its decision on ASU's ROTC program.

Pryor says the program at ASU is successful and that he will fight to keep it open.

The Army announced in October that ASU's ROTC program would be discontinued at the end of the 2014-2015 school year.

Pryor's office said he, Sen. John Boozman and Rep. Rick Crawford demanded justification from Army officials about the closing.

Pryor is the lone Democrat in Arkansas' six-member congressional delegation. He's facing a challenge in his re-election bid from Rep. Tom Cotton.

Prosecutor closes Blytheville IRS investigation

BLYTHEVILLE (AP) - A prosecutor in northeast Arkansas has closed an investigation into the city of Blytheville's failure to pay $2 million in payroll tax withholdings.

Prosecutor Scott Ellington said in a news release on Friday that the matter was a case of poor management rather than criminal wrongdoing.

Ellington says state and federal investigators also inquired into city purchases of chemicals for the water department.

But Ellington said there wasn't any evidence that the city was being overcharged or that any inappropriate payments were made by the chemical vendor to city officials.

In a letter to state police, Ellington said Blytheville's failure to pay employee withholding taxes resulted in more than $1 million in interest and penalties assessed by the IRS in addition to unpaid withholding taxes in excess of $2 million.

"Pay and Display" parking meters ready in downtown Little Rock

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - City officials in Little Rock say a new parking-meter system called "Pay and Display" meters are now ready for use.

The city installed the eight meters on Sept. 22 on President Clinton Avenue in the city's River Market district that has been free parking. The meters are designed to accept coins, credit cards or debit cards.

Drivers will be expected to use the meters from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Historic Fordyce Bath House reopens in Hot Springs

HOT SPRINGS (AP) The Fordyce Bath House in Hot Springs reopens Friday after more than a year of renovations and upgrades.

The facility closed in October 2012 so workers could upgrade the building's heating and cooling system. The Sentinel-Record reports that the building was originally scheduled to reopen on Oct. 14, but the partial government shutdown delayed the reopening.

The Fordyce is located in Hot Springs National Park.

The building will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with daily tours conducted between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

The Fordyce opened as the park's visitor center and museum in 1989. Officials say the heating and cooling system needed to be replaced after the building's air conditioning system broke down in the summer of 2010.

Company finalizes purchase of Batesville plant

BATESVILLE (AP) - A Rogers-based company says it's finalized its purchased of a poultry plant in Batesville.

Ozark Mountain Poultry says the plant will employ 250 workers when it opens Nov. 11. The company bought the plant from Pilgrim's Pride Corp., which announced plans in August to stop production in Batesville.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that Ozark Mountain Poultry produces more than 1.5 million pounds of hand-deboned, antibiotic-free poultry a week aimed at the restaurant industry and for use in its consumer brand, Forester Farmer's Market.

The company says the addition of the Batesville plant will allow it to double its weekly production. The company says it anticipates hiring more workers in Batesville as production capacity at the plant increases.

Cotton, Pryor speaking to Arkansas college group

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor and Republican rival U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton are expected to address a group of private university and college leaders in Arkansas.

Pryor and Cotton are scheduled to address Arkansas' Independent Colleges and Universities at the group's annual meeting Friday at the Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock. The group represents 11 private colleges and universities from around the state.

The two are scheduled to appear separately before the group. The other scheduled speakers include Gov. Mike Beebe, U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, U.S. Sen. John Boozman and state Higher Education Director Shane Broadway.

Pryor was first elected in 2002 and is seeking a third term next year. Cotton is a first-term congressman who announced in August that he is running against Pryor.

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State Briefs

Police in Jonesboro say a woman who found a strange man sitting in her car chased him down and attacked him.